Pennsylvania · Medical Scholars Program

At a glance

DegreeMD (Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University)

Structure8 years

ApplyAs a high school senior

Open toOpen nationally

Annual cohortNot published on official page reviewed

GPA floorTop 5% of class, if rank provided.

Test floorSAT 1350, so section less than 600 / ACT 31

MCAT (to keep the seat)Yes, 509; no subsection score less than 126

GPA to keep the seatContinuation bucket (keeping the reserved LKSOM seat): overall GPA and science GPA (biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics) at W&J of at least 3.6 averaged over the first 3 years, no grade below B-, no repeated courses. All med-school prerequisites must be completed at W&J. Also requires MCAT of at least 509 with no section below 126, taken by May of junior year, plus medically-related shadowing/experiences and community service as specified in the LKSOM acceptance letter.

If you apply outApplying out to other schools forfeits the seat

Taking the MCATTaking the MCAT does not forfeit the seat

InterviewYes

Deadline (regular)November 10

Deadline (secondary)December 1

InternationalNot stated

A BS/MD seat is conditional, not a diploma. See what it takes to keep the seat, and how the continuation terms compare across every program.

Cost and aid

Undergraduate cost and medical-school cost are separate, and a combined seat is not automatically cheaper. These are the published figures. Confirm the current year with the program before you rely on a number.

Undergraduate years

Tuition (in-state)$30,314 tuition (full course load, 3-4 courses per semester), 2026-2027 academic year, Washington & Jefferson College. Private college, one rate for all students regardless of residency.

Tuition (out-of-state)$30,314 tuition (full course load), 2026-2027 academic year. W&J is a private college with no in-state/out-of-state tuition distinction. The college also lists an Out-of-State Grant among its institutional grants.

Need-based aidW&J College Grants for full-time students who demonstrate need, plus state and federal grants via FAFSA. College states nearly every student receives financial aid and much of it is gift aid, not loans.

Merit aidRange of merit scholarships including the W&J Thrive Scholarship starting at $17,000 per year, plus Presidential, Scholars, and Dean's scholarships (undergrad admission bucket, awarded by W&J).

Medical school years

Tuition$59,292 PA resident / $62,868 out-of-state, full-time MD Program tuition, academic year 2025-26, Temple University Bursar tuition rate schedule (Lewis Katz School of Medicine). University Services Fee assessed each semester in addition.

AidA limited number of merit and need-based scholarships for incoming MD students, most renewable all four years with good academic standing. Standard federal Direct Unsubsidized and GradPLUS loans. FAFSA encouraged by March 1.

What the program does not publish (and what to ask)

The official pages are not clear on which phase applies to a GPA floor. Worth asking the program directly before committing.

Sources and verification

Verified May 20, 2026 by Rory Merritt, MD against 6 official sources. Where a program does not publish something, we say so plainly rather than guess. How we verify.

• washjeff.edu /pre health professions school affi
• medicine.temple.edu /special admissions
• washjeff.edu /tuition fees schedule
• washjeff.edu /financial aid affordability
• bursar.temple.edu /Tuition Rates
• medicine.temple.edu /scholarships financial aid

Knowing the program is the easy part.

Whether it fits the student is the hard part. Tell a former Assistant Dean where things stand and get the one honest next step. Free, no odds, no pitch.

See Where You Stand →Building the program list? The Match, $500 →

See something wrong?

If you are an administrator, a current student, or a family that knows this program from the inside, email rorymerritt@bridge2md.com. We check every correction against the program's official source before we update.

The W&J Medical Scholars Program reserves a medical-school seat at Temple’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine for a small number of incoming Washington & Jefferson freshmen, decided before college begins. It is open to applicants anywhere in the country, and the seat is real but conditional. This page lays out what it requires, what it does not, and what is not published, so that whether you are the student deciding whether to apply or the parent helping, you are working from facts rather than forum rumor.

How the eight years work

This is an eight-year combined BA/MD program: four years of undergraduate study at Washington & Jefferson College, then four years at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, which grants the MD. It is not accelerated. You finish the bachelor’s degree at W&J before medical school begins.

The path starts as a high-school senior. You first apply to W&J, selecting the Pre-Professional goal ‘Pre-Health (Pre-Allopathic Medicine),’ and you must be accepted to W&J first. Official SAT or ACT scores are due to W&J by November 10, and self-reported scores are not accepted. After your W&J acceptance, you complete the supplemental Medical Scholars application. The official page lists two due dates for it, December 1 in one place and December 2 in another, so confirm the current date with the program rather than guessing. Then come two interviews: one with a member of the W&J Pre-Health Professions Committee, then one with the admissions committee at Katz, which makes the final decision.

What gets an application read, and what does not

The published bars are specific. You need an SAT above 1350 with no section below 600, or an ACT of 31 or higher, and a place in the top 5% of your high-school class where rank is reported. Substantial science coursework, including AP science, is viewed favorably. Note that this program does not allow the SAT/ACT score-optional policy. Read those numbers as the threshold to be considered, not as what wins one of the limited seats.

With a small number of reserved seats and two committees reading, what separates applications is not who looks the most impressive. It is who is the most credible. A claim that does not hold up does more damage here than a modest, true one, because a committee betting a guaranteed medical seat on a seventeen-year-old has every reason to look closely at each one. The work is to make the true version of your story clear and easy for a reviewer to believe and to champion.

Keeping the seat

The seat is real, and it is conditional. To convert it, your overall undergraduate GPA and your science GPA in biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics must each be at least 3.6 averaged over your first three years, with no grade below a B- and without repeating a course. All medical-school prerequisite courses must be completed at W&J. You must take the MCAT by May of junior year and score 509 overall with no section below 126. The published GPA condition covers the first three years. There is no separate fourth-year GPA clause stated for this program.

There is also a commitment condition that is easy to overlook: the Katz acceptance letter requires medically related shadowing or experiences, community service, and demonstrated commitment to serving others through extracurriculars. This is not a box checked at application time. It is held to across college.

One more clause matters. The guaranteed seat is a restricted AMCAS application. A student who uses the guaranteed seat with Temple cannot apply to other medical schools. If you choose to apply elsewhere, the guaranteed seat must be relinquished, though you can still apply to Temple through the regular process. That is a genuine fork in the road to understand before you accept the seat, not after.

Who the program is built for

The official materials describe this as a chance for exceptionally qualified high-school seniors, and the through-line is service. Beyond the test scores and the GPA, both the W&J and Temple pages ask for real involvement in community and healthcare settings and ask students to demonstrate commitment to serving others. That is not decoration around the academics. It is named as a condition of keeping the seat.

That shapes how you apply. A credible application here shows a student with a tested, genuine reason for choosing medicine and a record of service that predates the application. A reviewer reading these can tell the difference between service that is lived and service that is arranged to look right.

Where this leaves you

The W&J Medical Scholars Program suits a student who already knows, for real and tested reasons, that medicine is the path, who can hold a 3.6 across college and clear a 509 MCAT, and whose commitment to serving others is genuine rather than assembled. The trade is a national, very early decision in exchange for a reserved seat, with the real condition that taking it closes the door on applying to other medical schools.

It is not the right fit for a student who is genuinely still unsure, or whose certainty is mostly someone else’s. The honest question, whether you are the student or the parent reading this, is not whether you can get in. It is whether this is the student’s own decision, made with open eyes about the GPA, the MCAT, and the restricted-seat clause. If it is, this is a clean and credible BA/MD path. If it is not, there is no shame in saying so now, while saying so costs nothing.